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Recommended: Dell strategy history
Dell Computer Corporation
Dell Computer Corporation was recognized as the leader in personal computers during the 1990’s. However, economic instability and competitors gaining market share, heavily affected the company. In 2001, PC sales declined, layoffs were constant, and employees were disengaged. Thus, to revitalize the company a new philosophy statement called “The Soul Dell” was unveiled throughout the organization. However, the central problem for Dell was the methodology used to develop and communicate its core values to employees. As well as senior leaders’ inability to affect paradigms shift from the existing organizational culture and sustain an effective change management process.
Case Study Analysis
Background /Culture
Dell Computer Company is known for its meteoric rise to industry dominance based on founder Michael Dell’s ability to transition a part-time business of building and upgrading personal computers into a multi-billion dollar enterprise (O’Rourke, 2010). Dell’s business model was producing low cost, high quality PC’s that were built-to-order called “Dell Direct”. The strategy of shipping direct to customers eliminated the need for middlemen and gave Dell a competitive advantage (O’Rourke, 2010). Company growth surged in the 1990’s with over 38,000 employees and a global platform. Dell and Chief Operating Officer, Kevin Rollins, created a fast-past, win-at-all-cost, highly competitive organizational culture whereby compensation and promotions were based on exceptional performance (O’Rourke, 2010). Finally, in 2000, Elizabeth Allen joined the company as vice president of corporate communications.
In 2001 the company experienced an economic downturn. PC profit margins declined and lay...
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..., they failed to properly diagnose the problem in order to identify all the possible interventions needed to implement and sustain the change and behavior they wanted. Thus, in order to bring about this change, Dell and Rollins need to model the vision similar to the methods used during the September 11, 2001 attacks. Also, they need to ensure management has bought into the vision and can clearly articulate it to their direct reports. Moreover, incorporating cultural initiatives in employees’ performance management goals without a clear understanding of how the change affects them is premature. Employees first need to understand how the change impacts them and be empowered to provide input on its content and implementation. Finally, cultural shifts take time. Therefore, senior leadership needs to stay commitment to the change until it is institutionalized.
According to Gerard and Teurfs transformation methods, listening, having dialogue and community building can be used to transform the different cultures of a global organization, by developing newer, improved cultures. For the transformation to be successful the turnaround teams engaged in collaborative dialogue with participants to emerge the new culture and mutually agree to a newer direction for the company. The staff had to suspend their judgment of others from the past, and attach their thoughts, opinions to their new identity by actively being engaged in forms of comprehensive and therapeutic listening, living their new ethical direction that was set from the new CEO Ed Breen (Palmer, Dunford, & Akin, 2009).
The speaker provides the impressive argument stating that only 54 percent of the success depends on the change initiative. It occurs because of the three common pitfalls of the change management. Aguirre (2014) considers that the change fatigue, namely, the excess of initiatives is the first aspect that limits the change. The second disadvantage appears in the case of the chief executive, who dictates the rules, but does not clarify or show how to implement them. Ultimately, it is erroneous to think that the communication is the same as the engagement. The above listed mistakes lead to the non-transformation, waste of time, people, and capital, and it diminished moral. Above all, the culture is essential to move the organization and keep it effective (Hitt et al., 2015). It might include the informal leaders, integration, environment, and coherence throughout the
The Simmons Company, founded in 1870, is one of the oldest major mattress manufacturers in the United States. Simmons throughout its long history has been through and survived numerous changes, including its greatest, in 1978 when they ceased to be a family run business (Casciaro, 2007a). While Simmons had an established set of core values dating back to its founding, Eitel felt these core values could possibly be improved upon and he enhanced the existing core values by adding three additional core values. The core values and culture of an organization define who they are by way of the people within, ultimately showcasing their choices and commitment to the organization. The purpose of this paper is to gain insight on the role of leadership during change and how implementing change within an organization can and will affect its culture.
Change is the process of making things different. As trends change, the way that an organization conducts business is also subject to change. The pace which organizations experience change has been accelerating as economic changes fluctuate and technology changes continue to advance. As changes progress, “organizations will be forced to change in a way for which there has been no precedent” (O’Brien & Robertson, 2009, p. 371). Organizational leaders are pressed with the demands of change while continuing to hold the responsibility of ensuring that the organization reaches its goals of maximum productivity, leading to increased profits. Leadership strategies will be explored by this analysis. The major challenges managers face and the competencies needed to effectively complete their jobs will all be examined.
In today’s ever changing world people must adapt to change. If an organization wants to be successful or remain successful they must embrace change. This book helps us identify why people succeed and or fail at large scale change. A lot of companies have a problem with integrating change, The Heart of Change, outlines ways a company can integrate change. The text book Ivanceich’s Organizational Behavior and Kotter and Cohen’s The Heart of Change outlines how change can be a good thing within an organization. The Heart of Change introduces its readers to eight steps the authors feel are important in introducing a large scale organizational change. Today’s organizations have to deal with leadership change, change in the economy,
1. How and why did the personal computer industry come to have such low average profitability?
Changing situations throughout the world affect all organizations in business today. Therefore, most organizations acknowledge the need to experience change and transformation in order to survive. The key challenges companies face are due to the advancements in technology, the social environment caused by globalization, the pace of competition, and the demands regarding customer expectations. It is difficult to overcome the obstacles involved with change despite all the articles, books, and publications devoted to the topic. People are naturally resistant to fundamental changes and often intimidated by the process; the old traditional patterns and methods are no longer effective.
Chapter sixteen in our textbook highlights the benefits of organizational culture and what it can do for any company with a strong culture perspective. In fact chapter sixteen-three(a) speaks widely on how a strong culture perspective shapes any organization up well enough to perform better than any of its competitors who do not balance any organizational culture. If not mistaken after viewing SAS institute case they are well on track with facilitating a high performance organization culture. First, SAS institute motivate all employees to become goal alignment in their field of work. This is where they all share the common goal to get their work done. In one of the excerpts taken away from this case, an employee- friendly benefits summary expresses the statement “If you treat employees as if they make a difference to the company, they will make a difference to the company.” “SAS Institute’s founders set out to create the kind of workplace where employees would enjoy spending time. And even though the workforce continues to grow year after year, it’s still the kind of place where people enjoy working.” Clearly highlighted from this statement that SAS Institute is mainly ran off of a fit perspective. Which argues that a culture is only as good as it fits the industry. Allowing a good blueprint or set up will
Dell Inc. weakness was cell manufacturing because their assembled computers were being shipped five to six days after the order was placed. It is an inconvenience for the customers to always send their computer away to have it repaired. First, they are left without internet access. Second, the time it reaches Austin, Texas, have it repaired, and shipped back can take days. The company opportunities were the Dell U.K. that open business in 1987 and in that country it was a lot of companies selling cheap computers. Dell Inc. strides on loyalty among customers and employees, and that could only be derived from having the highest level of service and performing products. Segmentation within the company enables them to measure the efficiency of the business in terms of assets use. Dell Inc. evaluates their return on invested capital in each segment, compare it with other segments, and target what the performance of each should be.
Speaking about the business model of Dell, it has ability to remain on the higher end of the scale for a particular time period. Dell has business model, which primarily focuses on direct selling line of attack. It in a straight line supplies the PCs to the regulars. It does not believe in intermediary, retailers for the business practices. Undeniably, this gives them an edge to serve customer well. Nevertheless, it understood the importance of retailers and start offering products on the premises of retailers, such as Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club and so on. Next, Dell administration is certain of the exclusive business of PCs. As time goes on, however, observing the
Before we start, we would like to briefly introduce the definitions of Supply Chain and Supply Chain Management (SCM).
My report is on the company Hewlett – Packard (HP) which was founded in 1939. I mainly focused on the Personal Systems Group (PSG): business and consumers PCs mobile computing devices and workstations which is one of the major industries of HP. In order to succeed in the business industry a company needs to understand its customer’s needs and create wants for them. HP found out that the customer needed light weight, useful notebook PCs through its Research & Development (R&D) centre. Hence, it created a want; a New Commercial Notebook PC Compaq Evo Notebook N1015v which packs the power and performance necessary for mobility into a stylish design for only $899(US $). HP also finds out about its customer needs through online feedback forms and survey. Via that, HP was also able to understand that not everyone are able to use their products hence it has created this HP accessibility products which can be accessed by anyone including people with disabilities and age – limitations. Example of such product under the PSG industry is the Mobile Speak Pocket which was specially made for the visually impaired people. ( Refer To Exhibit 1a – 1c )
It brought organisational culture to the performance of a company, which has become a critical topic in management department. In addition to organisational culture, organisations need to be aware and prepared for changes in the expanding workforce as business grows. Companies are faced with maximizing benefits as well as profits while minimizing negative factors that come from those changes. There is no one answer to the issue, but some of the guidelines are clear. Awareness of organisational culture, teamwork, individual performance, external environment adaptation, leadership, and measurement of organisational culture are key factors that lead a company to perform better.
Dell’s initial competitive strategy, when it was founded in 1984 by Michael Dell, was to focus mainly on differentiation. Its strategy was to sell customised personal computer systems directly to customers, which was a rapidly emerging market at that time (1). This was done by targeting second-time customers, those that already understand computers and know what they wanted. Meanwhile other companies at the time was selling “’plain brown wrapper’ computers” (2). By offering customisations, Dell gained a better understanding of customers’ needs and wants. This helped the organisation position itself differently against the more popular brands, such as Compaq and IBM.
Dell Inc had very effectively used the direct marketing channel for the sales of computers to the end consumer. When all the other pc makers were selling through retailers and distributors, Dell had started efficient use of the direct channels.